Matthew Yglesias

Matthew Yglesias (; born May 18, 1981) is a liberal American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as ''The American Prospect'', ''The Atlantic'', and ''Slate''. In November 2020, he left his position as an editor and columnist for the news website ''Vox'', which he co-founded in 2014, to publish the Substack newsletter ''Slow Boring''.

Early life and education

Yglesias's father Rafael Yglesias is a screenwriter and novelist, and he has a brother named Nicolas. His paternal grandparents were novelists Jose Yglesias and Helen Yglesias (née Bassine). His paternal grandfather was of Cuban and Spanish Galician descent, and his three other grandparents were of Eastern European Jewish descent.

Yglesias went to high school at the Dalton School in New York City. He attended Harvard University, where he was editor in chief of '' The Harvard Independent'' and graduated in 2003 with a B.A. ''magna cum laude'' in philosophy.

Career

Early career

Yglesias started blogging in early 2002, while still in college, focusing mainly on American politics and public policy issues, often approached from an abstract, philosophical perspective.

Yglesias joined the ''American Prospect'' as a writing fellow upon his graduation in 2003, subsequently becoming a staff writer. His posts appeared regularly on the magazine's collaborative weblog TAPPED.

From June 2007 until August 2008, he was a staff writer at ''The Atlantic Monthly'', and his blog was hosted on the magazine's website, ''The Atlantic''. In July 2008, he announced that he would leave ''The Atlantic Monthly'' for the Center for American Progress where he wrote for its blog, ThinkProgress, because he missed "the sense of collegiality that comes from working with like-minded colleagues on a shared enterprise" and thought he could "help advance their mission." On November 21, 2011, he left ThinkProgress to work as a business and economics correspondent at Slate's Moneybox.

''Vox''

In February 2014, he left ''Slate'' and joined Vox Media to co-found ''Vox'' with Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell. On November 13, 2020, Yglesias announced that he would no longer be writing for Vox.com. Yglesias moved to Substack for editorial independence.

Controversy

In 2013, Yglesias garnered controversy for his statements about the 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse, with Yglesias arguing that the lower building standards that partially led to the factory's collapse make "economic sense" in developing countries, later tweeting that "foreign factories should be more dangerous than American factories" and "the current system of letting different countries have different rules is working fine." His comments were widely criticized in ''The Daily Beast'', ''Time'' and other outlets, with ''The Guardian'' commenting that Yglesias is "confusing a person's human worth with their socio-economic status. That's wrong." Yglesias later clarified some of his comments, but stood by his original position.

Yglesias deleted his past Twitter feed in November 2018, after controversy over tweets which defended the motivation of protesters who gathered outside the house of Tucker Carlson. The tweets also expressed a lack of empathy for Carlson's wife, which caused outrage.

Books

Yglesias authored the political nonfiction book '' One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger'', released on September 15, 2020. It was inspired by Doug Saunders' ''Maximum Canada''. According to an analysis by British digital strategist Rob Blackie, Yglesias was one of the most commonly followed political writers among Biden administration staff on Twitter.

Andrew Sullivan, a fellow blogger, takes nominations on his blog for the Yglesias Award, an honor "for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe."

Political views

In 2011, ''The Economist'' noted that Yglesias has been accused of espousing "left-leaning neoliberalism" in his writing. In 2017, ''Vice'' listed Yglesias among a group of political writers who were attached with a "neoliberal shill" label in left-wing Twitter communities. Yglesias himself embraced the "neoliberal shill" label in a 2019 podcast.

In 2002, Yglesias was a strong supporter of invading Iraq, Iran and North Korea, calling the countries on his blog "evil" and stating that "we should take them all out", although he was critical of the term " axis of evil". In 2010, he called his attitudes about the war a mistake.

In or before 2010, Yglesias coined the term "pundit's fallacy" to denote "the belief that what a politician needs to do to improve his or her political standing is do what the pundit wants substantively." In 2012, Yglesias stated that he voted for Mitt Romney when he ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002.

Works

* ''Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats'', Wiley, April 2008, .Wiley product page
for ''Heads in the Sand''
* "Long Philosophical Rant about ''Spider-Man 2''", ''Ultimate blogs: masterworks from the wild Web'', Editor Sarah Boxer, Random House, Inc., 2008,
* "The Media", ''The 12-Step Bush Recovery Program'', Gene Stone, Carl Pritzkat, Tony Travostino, Random House, Inc., 2008,
* ''The Rent Is Too Damn High'', Simon and Schuster, March 2012, ASIN B0078XGJXO
* '' One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger'', Portfolio Penguin, September 2020, .

References

External links

*
slowboring - Matthew Yglesias blog

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yglesias, Matthew
1981 births
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American bloggers
American male bloggers
American people of Spanish descent
American political writers
American writers of Cuban descent
Center for American Progress people
Dalton School alumni
Harvard College alumni
Jewish American writers
Living people
Vox (website) people
Place of birth missing (living people)